Malala Yousafzai Becomes Honorary Canadian

Bismillahhirrahmanirrahim, In the name of God, The most merciful, The most beneficent.
Good afternoon. Bonjour. Assalamualaikum. Pa khair raghlai.

Mr. Prime Minister, Madame Trudeau Sophie, Mr. Speaker,

Members of the House, Members of the Senate, Distinguished guests,
My parents Ziauddin and Toor Pekai,
And finally the people of Canada-

Thank you so much for the warm welcome to your country. This is my first trip to
Canada, but not my first attempt. On the 22nd of October 2014, my father and I landed at the
Toronto airport, excited for our first visit to your wonderful country.

Soon, we learned that a man had attacked Parliament Hill, killing a Canadian soldier,
wounding others and threatening leaders and civil servants in the building where I stand
today.
Canadian security officials and professionals advised us to reschedule. With sorrow in our
hearts, we headed back to England, promising to return to Canada one day.

The man who attacked Parliament Hill called himself a Muslim, but he did not share
my faith. He did not share the faith of one and a half billion Muslims, living in peace around
the world.

Sorry the podium become too high, I’m short so I couldn’t read some of the words,
now I can read my speech. [ice breaking]

Back to my point that the man who attacked Parliament Hill called himself a Muslim,
but he did not share my faith. He did not share the faith of one and a half billion Muslims,
living in peace around the world. He did not share our Islam, a religion of learning,
compassion and mercy.

I’m a Muslim and I believe that when you pick up a gun in the name of Islam and kill
innocent people, you are not a Muslim anymore. You and the person who attacked parliament
hill and all these terrorist do not share my faith. Instead, he shared the hatred of the man who
attacked the Quebec City mosque in January, killing six people while they were at prayer.
The same hatred as the man who killed civilians and a police officer in London three
weeks ago. The same hatred as the man who killed 132 school children in Pakistan’s Army
Public School in Peshawar. The same hatred as the man who shot me and my two school
friends. These men have tried to divide us and destroy our democracies, our freedom of
religion, our right to go to school, but we and you refused to be divided.
 Canadians, wherever you are born, however you worship, stand together! and nothing
prove this more than your commitment to refugees around the world.

We have heard about Canada’s heroes, We heard about the members of First United
Church, here in Ottawa, who sponsored newlyweds Amina and Ebrahim. A few months later
the family had their first child, a little girl named Marya. The church decided to raise more
money to bring Ebrahim’s brother and family to Canada, so Marya could grow up with her
cousins.
We heard about Jorge Salazar in Vancouver, who came to Canada as a child refugee,
fleeing violence in Colombia. As a young adult, he’s working with today’s child immigrants
and refugees, helping them adapt with the new culture and country.
And I’m very proud to announce that Farah Mohamed, a refugee who fled Uganda and came
to Canada as a child, is Malala Fund’s new CEO, a Canadian will now lead the fight for girl’s
education around the world.

Many people from my own country of Pakistan have found a promised land in
Canada from Marya Toorpakai Wazir, a famous squash player to my relatives here today.
Like the refugees in Canada and all around the world, I have seen fear and
experienced times when I didn’t know if I was safe or not. I remember how my Mom would
put a ladder at the back of our house so that if anything happened we could escape.
I still remember that I would read a Quranic verse ayatul kursi everynight to protect
our family and as many people as I could.
I felt fear when I went to school, thinking that someone would stop me and harm me.
I would hide my books under my scarf.
The sound of bombs would wake me up at night. Every morning I would hear the
news that more innocent people had been killed. I saw men with big guns in the street.

There is more peace in my home of Swat Valley, Pakistan, but families like mine
from Palestine to Venezuela, Somalia to Myanmar, Iraq to Congo, are forced to flee their
homes because of violence.
So your motto and your stand “Welcome to Canada” is more than a headline or a
hashtag. It is the spirit of humanity that every single one of us would yearn for, if our family
was in crisis.
I pray that you continue to open your homes and your hearts to the world’s most
defenceless children and families, and I hope your neighbours will follow your example.

I’m humbled to accept honorary citizenship to your country. While I will always be a
proud Pashtun and a proud citizen of Pakistan, I am grateful to be an honorary member of
your nation of heroes, though I still require a visa. That’s another discussion.

I was also very happy to meet Prime Minister Trudeau this morning. I am amazed by
his embrace of refugees, his commitment to appointing Canada’s first gender-balanced
cabinet and his dedication to keeping women and girls at the centre of your development
strategy.
 We have heard so much about Prime Minister Trudeau, but one thing has surprised
me, people are always talking about how young he is. They said that He’s the second-
youngest Prime Minister in Canadian history, He does yoga, He has tattoos, and a lot more
and while i was coming here, everyone was telling me like shake prime minister’s hand and
let us know how he looks in reality and people were just so excited about meeting Trudeau. I
don’t think anyone cared about the Canadian honorary citizenship. [ice breaking]

While it may be true that prime minister Trudeau is young and he is young head of
government. I would like to tell something to the children of Canada, that you don’t have to
be as old as the very young Prime Minister Trudeau to be a leader!

I’m still page seven and like a lot left, so if you do standing ovation again and again
you’ll get tired. Just to let you know, there’s a lot left. [ice breaking]

But I want to share my story that I want to tell the children of Canada that when I was
little, I used to waited to be an adult to lead, but I have learned that even a child’s voice can
be heard across the world. And to the young women of Canada, I want to say step forward,
raise your voices! And the next time I visit, I hope too see more of you filling these seats.

And to the men of Canada, be proud feminists, and help women get equal
opportunities as men. And to the leaders of Canada today in this room, though you may have
different politics and policies and priorities, i know each one of you is trying to respond to
some of our world’s most pressing problems.

I have travelled the world and met many people in many countries. I have first-hand
experience and I’ve seen many problems that we are facing today; war, economic instability,
climate change and health crises, and I can tell you that the answer is girls.
Secondary education can transform communities, countries and our world. And here’s
what the statistics say, I’m saying it for those who still don’t accept education is important,
there are some, but I hope they will hear that if all girls went to school for 12 years, low and
middle income countries could add 92 billion dollars per year to their economies.
Educated girls are less likely to marry young and contract HIV and more likely to
have healthy and educated children. The Brookings Institution calls secondary education for
girls the most cost-effective and best investment against climate change.

When a country gives all its children secondary education, they cut their risk of war in
half. Education is vital for security of the world because extremism grows alongside
inequality, in places where people feel they have no opportunity, no voice, no hope.

When women are educated, there are more jobs for everyone. When mothers can keep
their children alive and send them to school, there is hope.
But around the world, 130 million girls are out of school today. They may not have read the
studies and they may not know the statistics but they understand that education is the only
path to a brighter future, and they are fighting to go to school.
Last summer, on a trip to Kenya, I was introduced to the bravest girl I’ve ever met.
At age 13, Rahma’s family fled Somalia and came to Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee
camp.
She had never been inside a classroom but she worked hard to catch up, and in a few years,
graduated primary school.
At 18, Rahma was introduced, was in secondary school, when her parents decided to
move back to Somalia. They promised she could continue her education. But when her
family returned to Somalia, there were no schools for her to attend. Her father said her
education was finished and that she would soon marry a man in his 50s, a man she did not
know.
Rahma remembered a friend from the refugee camp, who had won a scholarship to a
university in Canada. She borrowed a neighbour’s internet and contacted him through
Facebook. Over the internet, the university student in Canada sent her $70.
At night, Rahma snuck out of her house, bought a bus ticket and set out on an eight-
day long trip, back to the refugee camp; the only place she knew she could go to school.

Through the Sustainable Development Goals, our nations promised every girl she
would go to school for 12 years. We promised that donor countries and developing countries
would work together to make this dream a reality for the poorest girls in the world.

I know that politicians cannot keep every promise they make, but this is one you must
honour. World leaders can no longer expect girls like Rahma to fight this battle alone.
We can gain peace, grow economies, improve our public health and the air we breathe. Or we
can lose another generation of girls.

I stand with girls, as someone who knows what it’s like to flee your home and wonder
if you’ll ever be able to go back to school.
I stand with girls, as someone who knows how it feels to have your right to education
taken away and your dreams threatened.
I know where I stand. If you stand with me, I ask you to seize every opportunity for
girls’ education over the next year.

Dear Canada, I am asking you to lead once again,

 First, make girls’ education a central theme of your G7 Presidency next year.
 Second, use your influence to fill the global education funding gap, to raised billions
of dollars and saved lives when you hosted the Global Fund replenishment in
Montreal last year. Show the same leadership for education.
Host the upcoming replenishment of the Global Partnership for Education,
bring world leaders together and raise new funding for girls to go to school. If Canada
leads, I know the world will follow.
  Finally, prioritize 12 years of education and schooling for refugees.
Today only a quarter of refugee children get secondary education. We should
not ask children who flee their homes to also give up their dreams. And we must
recognize that young refugees are future leaders on whom we will all depend for
peace.

The world needs leadership based on serving humanity, not based on how many weapons
you have. Canada can take that lead. Our world has many problems, but we don’t need to
look far for the solution, we already have one.

She is living in a refugee camp in Jordan. She is walking five kilometres to school in
Guatemala. She is sewing footballs to pay enrolment fees in India. She is every one of the
girls out of school around the world today.
We know what to do, but we must look inside ourselves for the will to keep our promises.

Dear sisters and brothers, we have a responsibility to improve our world. When future
generations read about us in their books or on their iPads or whatever the next innovation will
be, I don’t want them to be shocked that 130 million girls could not go to school and we did
nothing. I don’t want them to be shocked we did not stand up for child refugees, as millions
of families fled their homes. I don’t want us to be known for failing them.

Let the future generations say, we were the ones who stood up. Let them say, we were
the first one, we were the first to live in a world where all girls could learn and lead without
fear, and let us be the ones who bring that change we want to see.

Thank you so much for listening.

NAME : Dwyana Putri Khairunnisa

NIM : 6211181096
With all due respect the rector, dean, colleagues, and student of the University that we are
proud of the most. In this meeting, I stand in front of you not to teach you like in the class.
This time I will highlight about the importance of University students’ role as agent of
change.

Why we can conclude University student as agent of change? Being the student at the highest
level, University, it means that you are students with sharpest way of thinking and analyzing,
compared to regular students. You, the students in front of me, are not those who merely
swallow what is stated in front of the class. You are required to think deeper, analyzing and
finding the most effective solution to answer a problem.

Also in this phase, University students have to be the leader of themselves. Number one
requirement of University students is being independent. No one will provide you the
schedule or suggesting you about priority scale. It is on your own. You are the one who
decide which one is an obligation and which one is not. Which one is a priority and which
one is not? Which one is legal and which one is forbidden.

Dear students that I love,

Within yourself, you have important role. It is not only studying responsibly, but also the role
as agent of change. The world will perceive the output from this University, not the rector,
dean, or others. You are the frontline of this college. The students, as the representation of
University. If you score an achievement, the University will be known. The same thing will
happen when you do a shame, the world will pay attention to this University.

Later when you left this college, that’s the time when you will get the benefit of what you’ve
learned here. The way you finish a task within deadline; the way you speak in front of public;
and the way you solve a riddle and find solution. Maybe for now you have no idea how to
implement it. But later, when you enter the real life, you will conquer how soft skill and
attitude are two important things that will shape you as agent of change.

If later you work and sit in strategic position, you are the only one who can make a change.
University student is the engine of change. You can change a bad system. You can take a
decision to solve the long-known problem. Youth who can think wisely is the best agent of
change. Being a University student is not an easy task. There are many things that can bring
you from the role of agent of change, to become a trouble maker. But please do remember, it
is only one chance that you can be agent of change in this position. This is a golden
opportunity.

Dear students that I’m proud of,

A University student can map current situation and think about its appropriateness. You can
see how a system should operate. By your role as University student, change is possibly
happen. Look what happened during Reformasi, everything happened from the thinking of
University students. At this era, the implementation of your role may be slightly different
from what happened during 1998. But with your own way, University student can be agent of
change, for a better Indonesia.

Thank you for your attention. Cheers.